Spring break for the last three or four years has been characterized by the Henry family traveling! This year, we have gone no further than the lovely westerly state of Colorado! We stayed in a little suite called Hideout at Frontier Ranch (Buena Vista). It’s where Christian Challenge Manhattan calls home every spring break, and they asked Logan to come along and make a sweet video of their experiences in 2015. With Logan comes a wife and kid though… so here we are!

This ranch is over the top. It sits right up in the Mount Princeton area, and this week, the weather has been awesomely perfect. Well, actually, I’m cold. It’s been perfect mountain weather, I should say. I didn’t really prepare well, since in Kansas right now there would be no need for a coat, and barely a jacket. It’s been warm in the day, but cold at night and in the mornings! I actually dug Logan’s dirty sweater out this morning (I know, gross. I was desperate. But I guess you can call that sweater a bonafide boyfriend sweater now) because it was COLD and I am just silly enough not to have packed enough layers for me to be comfortable! The food is nothing like what you might envision camp food to be like. It’s more than fancy, and it’s really a good thing they serve it family style, because if I didn’t have to share that big plate of roasted feta chicken, I wouldn’t have. And God only know how I had the will power to eat just one chocolate chip cookie yesterday at lunch. Holy smokes.

While Logan shoots video at all the sessions and at the events that are happening on site (hikes, giant swing ride, Summit games, etc.), Evie and I are on one adventure after another. Mostly, she has fallen in love with basketball, since our cabin is set right in front of the full court. “Ketball” is probably something we’ll have to invest some more time in when we get home. She shrieks with joy anytime “we” make a basket! So cute.

We also have a sweet little private playground to ourselves that sits directly to the left of our cabin. It has a baby swing (“fwing”), a big slide, a sandy area with toys, a little wooden tipi, and a playhouse that Evie just loves. I say “ding-dong!” and she says “come in!” There’s also tons of stairs that Evie is really into climbing up and down. There’s a hot springs pool, trails to hike on, and mountains to ooh and ahh at.

Our good friends and college mentors Brian and Mindi Sturm have been playing a game of who-can-make-Evie-like-them-more, so she’s getting spoiled with lots of attention. She has also drawn quite a bit of attention through her charismatic outbursts during worship sets. The music here she loves, but it’s been real contemplative and serious in the mornings when we go, so there’s been some times of silent prayer, and a general feel of quietness in worship. Evie has knocked that out by saying “AMEN!” super loud, and today her “YAY!” after the song finished got the crowd to chuckling and “ALL DONE!” had similar responses. Embarrassingly cute. Sigh. I heard she even got a plug from the main speaker (Steve Williams) during the evening session! She’s famous!

This Summit Retreat has been a refreshing blessing to be at! Between getting an afternoon to ourselves thanks to Mindi and Brian, spending tons of quality time with the Evster all day, and getting to read, sleep, and blog, it’s been worth the miles. Not to mention the energy that college students bring… it is matched by few other groups of people. Thanks to the KSU Challenge for inviting us along this year!